How Accepting Life is Crap Sometimes Can Help?

CANDo Life Skills and the Inner Imp Thinking Series often takes a really down-to-earth approach that sometimes come across as in-your-face.

Make no mistake; this is deliberate!

I opted for this approach because, quite frankly, the world has gone mad on being too understanding and sympathetic.

We have developed this alarming habit of running off to our doctors, bosses, the police, or any other authority figure that can be persuaded to listen, with our woe-is-me stories. In response we hear lovely soothing responses such as:

“Oh, poor you!”

“It’s not your fault.”

“You had a bad experience. Who can blame little ol’ you for breaking the law?”

“I know you broke the law but there was no need for those policemen to be so nasty and roughty-toughty.”

“You obviously need a holiday.”

“Oh, you need drugs; here take these.”

“It’s all your parents’/teacher’s/government’s fault!”

One of the most thought provoking moments of my life happened when I transferred to a new gynaecologist and was more or less given the prescription of “Life’s Crap Sometimes, Deal with It!”. (If your interested is piqued, you’ll either have to buy the book “Meet your Inner Imps” or support us on Patreon.com/CANDoLifeSkills where you’ll get it as part of your sponsorship packet).

The incident had a lasting impact on me.

After I recovered from the initial meltdown of my Inner Imps flouncing around in outrageous indignation, I realised this attitude of life’s-crap-sometimes-get-on-with-it had the potential to become one of the bedrocks for success in improving my life. Let me try and explain my reasoning a little.

The Benefits of a “Life’s Crap Sometimes” Attitude

First up, larger birds and carnivorous mammals preyed upon our early primate ancestors. We would not have survived if our ancestors had all opted for therapy depressed because the predators didn’t play fair and were so much bigger and stronger.

If that explanation doesn’t float your boat, what about chimps (if you believe Darwin’s theories)! Where would we be today if they had wallowed in depression because:

they had less hair per square inch than the others, or

everyone laughed at them because they preferred to catch ants with a stick or walk about on their hind legs?

For my final evidence Your Honour, I submit that, whether you are a Christian or not, you can’t ignore the impact Jesus of Nazareth had on history. When he came to feed the five thousand what would have happened if he had rolled his eyes and said, “For goodness sakes, I’m the saviour of the world, you can’t expect me to do something as menial as preparing dinner”.

In all these cases, they accepted “Life’s-Crap-Sometimes!” and got on with it.

Your Inner Imps are probably all arguing right now that people were uninformed, much less civilised and we know so much better these days. You may even agree with them. Well, I would ask:

Are we more civilised or just softer, excessively pampered and clinging on to the expectation that our lives should always be pleasant? Are the actions and behaviours we indulge in today based on common sense of what is truly best for us or simply our pampered selves fighting shy of the slightest unpleasantness?

We have become so spoiled, pampered and intent on ensuring our lives remain cushy and trouble-free that we now live with the expectation that life should always be like that. Our expectations are then dashed when the do-do does hit and our instinctive reaction is to find someone or something to blame. If you want to help yourself, remember “Life is Crap Sometimes” and there are times when you just have to put up with that and find a way around it yourself.

Taking a “Life is Crap Sometimes, Deal With It” attitude will help your Inner Imp Responsibility help you accept liability for your life.

So, if you don’t like this kind of plain speaking, to quote from above “Life’s Crap Sometimes, Deal with It”… Then again, if you don’t like plain speaking, you are most likely one of the very people that could benefit the most from it because, the chances are, it is your Inner Imp Hellions that are balking at the prospect of a few home truths upsetting up their cushy lives.

Want to find out more about how Inner Imps tamper shamelessly with your life.